1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a new type of electronic IC (integrated circuit) card (also known as a smart card or chip card) of the contactless type, but which operates in accordance with an operating system for a contact type card. It also relates to reader for such contactless IC cards.
2. Description of Related Art
There exist two categories of electronic IC cards, distinguished according to whether or not they have electrical contacts for their link with a card reader.
Contact type electronic IC cards, presently the most widely used, operate in accordance with card operating systems and communicate with the reader in accordance with communication protocols, these systems and protocols being standardized. In particular, they communicate with the card reader in accordance with the ISO 7816-4 standard.
Contactless electronic IC cards, which are less widely used than the former, communicate with the card reader in accordance with the ISO 14443-4 standard, which is different from the ISO 7816-4 standard in many respects.
As a result, the user of contactless electronic IC cards must develop a specific operating system adapted to the ISO 14443-4 standard to produce the same functional features as those of the contact type IC card.
Conversely, the user of contact type electronic IC cards cannot implement the operating system of a contactless card without modifying the latter to take into account the specific aspects of the ISO 14443-4 standard.